The Walt Disney Studios — Attraction in Burbank

WALT DISNEY STUDIOS is a working entertainment factory. Organized confusion that somehow makes beautiful movies and television. This is a city dedicated to the making of fantasy. It is as real as magic can be; and just as wonderful. Tours are available. Check the internet.

I've spent my life in the "Business." To me, movie factories are as magical as my imagination can make them. I was visiting the studio for a screening of the 2018's musical, Mary Poppins Returns. Our family, including our ten year old granddaughter, loved it. I know this sounds silly, but the three of us had tears in our eyes. My wife and grandchild just loved the actors and the characters they play. I was mesmerized by the quality of production. This was a complex, difficult film and it was pulled off brilliantly. In the years since my retirement, movie makers have become more able to deliver the story that the screenwriter dreamed.

The Disney lot looks like a "hot set," polished and perfect, ready for production. The buildings are beautiful. Particularly the executive offices' top floor which is held up by statues of the Seven Dwarfs. In the lobby, in front of the elevators, is a hugh mosaic of Walt Disney looking down at you. Yes, it is intimidating.

On the plaza, in front of the executive office building is a statue of Mr. Disney holding hands with a three foot tall statue of Mickey Mouse. Mr. Disney has been quoted as crediting Mickey as the Mouse that built the studio. A few steps away are statues of Mr. Disney and Minnie Mouse, sitting on a bench in conversation.*

Under the plaza is the multi-level parking structure. Parking is wheelchair accessible, easy and efficient. Elevators bring you up to plaza level.

Here's an interesting background story. When Walt Disney was developing, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," he needed additional work space for his animators. So he went to bankers applying for a rather large loan. Now remember, no had ever made a feature length cartoon before. The bankers found the loan to be too much of a risk. However, if the artists' animation rooms could include oxygen and water, and could be used as hospital rooms, the loan will be approved. (St Joseph Hospital is next door.) So, if "the worst came to the worst", the dwarfs would have good medical care. The rest is history.

The image of animated charactors, holding up the roof, with Walt looking on, holding Mickey with his left hand, directing with his right, is just as it should be. Thanks for keeping the tradition alive.

*Studio tours of the Burbank lot is offered through D23 Events, Disney Movie Insider Rewards, and...

My sister really wanted to go on the Walt Disney studio tour 🐭 🎥 back in Fall 2022 🍂 . So she purchased the D23 Duo Gold membership 🌟 so she could have a better chance of booking a studio tour once the new dates came out for Nov and Dec.

I like Disney. However, I'm not the kind of person who would willingly shell out a lot of money for a Disney experience. But because she really wanted to tour Disney studios, I went along as her companion.

The entire studio tour lasted about 2 hours. Our guide was really nice and courteous 🙂! But because the studio lot is pretty small, I felt like there wasn't a whole lot to see.

The highlights are mainly Walt Disney's office 🖊 📑 and Pluto's Corner 🐶 🐾 . The employees were setting up props outside for "Beauty and the Beast 🌹" live.

We also got to hold one of the 20+ Oscars that Walt Disney won in his lifetime 😃! A real Oscar 🏆 is pretty heavy 😳! At least for our small hands 🙌!

But other than that, I personally didn't feel like it was worth the money we paid for the tour. Even with D23 membership, there wasn’t a huge discount for the studio tour tickets 🎫 and we still had to pay about $99 per person, which I think is pretty steep for a super simplistic and “no frills” studio tour. For what we actually saw, i felt like it really should have been 1/3 or 1/2 the price we paid. They do hand out collector pins at the end of the tour though ☺️!

I just went on the Warner Bros classic studio tour earlier this month and found it to be SO much better, much more reasonably priced, and a LOT more to see 👀😃! I would recommend saving your money for that studio...

I no longer have access to my former Gmail account because it's full and they have now disabled my ability to send/receive emails. I wanted to change my SHOPDISNEY email and, of course, they sent me a code to my old email address, which I can't receive emails to, so I started a chat. The chat with Emily was so stupid! I spent at least 30 minutes chatting with her and she didn't make sense, so I called the number to speak with a manager. She told me I can't update my SHOPDISNEY email without CANCELLING my Disney+ subscription? Why??

Apparently, whenever you sign up for EITHER a Disney account (for tickets, hotels, reservations, etc.), OR ShopDisney (for shopping), OR Disney+, they take it upon themselves to create an account across ALL platforms with that email address. In 2008 I started to create an account for ShopDisney, but never finished because I wanted to use my main email account.

NOW, I am unable to have them use that same email address (from 2008) because THEY created an account (even though I never used it)??? Literally nobody could help me. They told me I had to update my email with Disney+ before they could merge them. Disney+ said they can't use that email because it's "already in use" (from 2008?), Disney couldn't update my Keyholder passes until I updated my Disney+ account. So how in the heck am I supposed to update ANY of these if they won't let me?

1. Cancelling my Disney+ subscription.
2. Not renewing my Keyholder pass.
3. Just deleted my ShopDisney account.
4. Will not be renewing my D23 account.

I do NOT need this on a...